Introduction to housing and ICTs
 

These pages are
draft v.1 30/6/03
Comments to
David Wilcox
 

The role of ICTs in housing and regeneration

This section covers:

  • How and why ICTs may be important in housing
  • Scottish policy for digital inclusion
  • Practical benefits of ICTs - and the barriers
  • Future developments

How and why ICTs may be important

Information and communication technologies are becoming essential within housing associations for inernal day-to-day working. In addition they will become important in providing external benefits in three main areas:

Delivery of online information and services. Already a number of associations provide information about lettings, rents and resident participation online. Some offer residents the ability to report repairs online

Community development and social inclusion. The Internet can be used by groups and individuals as an additional tool for communication and collaboration.

Life long learning. Housing associations could help their residents to develop new skills, and to learn and work from homes.

Scottish policy

The Scottish Executive’s digital inclusion strategy, “Connecting Scotland’s People”, provides the context for this work. It recognises that without support, some sections of our society face barriers to accessing the benefits of Information Communications Technologies (ICT). More here >

Practical benefits of ICTs - and barriers

The practical benefits of ICTs generally fall into four categories:

  • accessing information
  • communicating and collaborating
  • publishing and achieving greater visibility
  • managing more effectively

However, these priorities may differ for residents and housing associations, and the challenge is to find where agendas overlap. More on benefits >

Research also reveals many potential barriers to progress, as initiatives deal with creating awareness of the potential; providing access; offering support; developing skills; creating content and involving users. More on balancing benefits and barriers >

Future developments

As part of the research for the publication "Making the Net work for residents and their landlords", futurist David Greenop provided insights into the way that personal and home-based communication technologies are likely to develop by 2007. He concluded:

  • Social trends of more 'individualistic' lifestyles, flexible working and dispersed social networks will provide the context for new technology.

  • Information and communication will be available through a wider range of fixed and mobile devices that can be networked together.

  • We can expect to see 'smart homes', 'media rich homes' and 'dumb homes', depending upon people's preferences and what they can afford.

The Internet will change to become many networks usually accessed through portals designed around work, the home and the individual.

He set his vision of personal networks, smart and dumb homes in the context of social as well as technology trends, because these will inform development and marketing by both private and public organisations. His presentation does not represent desirable or undesirable scenarios for the future, but offers a reflection of the way that the technology industry sees things developing. Full report >